Bottle gourd Halwa (Gardudde Halwa)
Need a quick, simple, easy to prepare halwa? Then bottle gourd halwa is perfect for you. Bottle gourd halwa makes a great dessert chilled or otherwise.
My mom used to always make kushmanda halwa (halwa made using ash gourd, also called as kashi halwa) all the time. But, it takes a lot of effort to grate ash gourd and takes a lot of time to cook ash gourd to prepare the famous kushmanda halwa. So, my mom found a substitute for ash gourd - bottle gourd. Bottle gourd is easy to grate and cook. Making the process faster and easy. And in addition to it, this bottle gourd/gardudude halwa tastes just like kushmanda halwa. Bottle gourd is known to have cooling effects on your body too.
Bottle gourd is called as gardudde in Konkani. Hence, it's called gardudde halwa in Konkani.
Ingredients:
2 cups grated bottle gourd - 1 medium sized bottle gourd
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
4-5 tablespoons of ghee
Nuts and raisins
Serves: 2-3
Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Preparation Method:
1. Peel the bottle gourd.
2. Mature bottle gourds have mature seeds. Deseed them in that case. If you have bought a tender bottle gourd then they'll have few, tiny, tender seeds. You don't have to worry about deseeding a tender bottle gourd.
3. Grate the bottle gourd.
4. In a non stick pan, cook grated bottle gourd on a medium flame without adding any water. When bottle gourd starts to cook it gives out water. Close the pan with a lid and allow the bottle gourd to cook in that water.
5. Saute once in a while for uniform cooking.
6. Once all the water has evaporated, the bottle gourd would be cooked half way through. Then add sugar and mix well.
7. The sugar dissolves and the mixture gets watery again. Let the bottle gourd cook in that water. Cook closed on a low flame until the bottle gourd cooks through.
8. As the bottle gourd cooks through all the water in the pan gets used up and the halwa gets dry. Simmer until you get a nice sticky, syrupy texture.
9. Keep stirring every once in a while to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pan.
10. Add cardamom powder and mix well. Add ghee and mix well.
11. Fry cashew and raisins in a tablespoon of ghee until cashew turns golden brown in colour. Add them to the halwa and mix well.
12. Once you get a sticky, syrupy consistency and the halwa starts to get off the pan when you stir it, remove the halwa off heat.
Serving suggestions:
Serve the halwa hot or once it cools with or without badam slices on top. You can also serve this bottle gourd halwa chilled.
Liked this banana halwa recipe? Then you might like these other halwa recipes too:
For more Indian desserts and sweets recipes look here.
Tags: Sweets, desserts, gardudde, bottle gourd, halwa, festival food
Tweet